Centre being vindictive against scribe over Aadhaar breach

 The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today accused the government of taking "vindictive action" by registering an FIR in connection with a newspaper report on alleged Aadhaar data breach.

"The CITU denounces the Government's move in registering an FIR against the journalist of Tribune, Rachna Khaira, and her sources for exposing the leakage-prone systemic fault in Aadhaar administration," it said in a statement issued here.

The CITU also welcomed rising protests against the "vindictive action" by the Centre.

"Such vindictive action is the reflection of an obnoxious, authoritarian arrogance of the government, as if 'the king can do any wrong'. The CITU welcomes rising protests against such vindictive actions of the government from various organisations and agencies, including the journalists', and the newspaper employees' unions, and urges the government to take a call initiating corrective action," the statement said.

'The Tribune' correspondent Rachna Khaira and her sources were named in an FIR over her report on the breach of one billion Aadhaar cards data.

The journalist should have been "rewarded" for successfully investigating the faults in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) system in respect of protecting individual data for preventing intrusion on peoples' right to privacy, which had been upheld by the Supreme Court, the CITU said in the statement.

Even though the issue was raised in Parliament, the government did not recognise the faults in the system and its fallouts which raised doubts, it claimed.

The CITU has demanded that the government should "withdraw the FIR against the journalist in the interest of fairness and propriety".